Visuals from Sri Lanka shared as scenes in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's resignation

What is the claim?

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned from her post due to ongoing protests and left the country. After her exit, visuals of protesters entering her residence and ransacking the house surfaced on social media. One such image and a video circulated claiming to show protestors inside her house. The video shows several people swimming in an indoor pool and the viral image shows three men lying on a bed. Sharing the image, one user wrote, "Scenes from Shiekh Hasina's bedroom." Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here.

Screenshots of the viral posts on social media. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the claim is false. The visuals are from the 2022 Sri Lankan crisis when protesters barged into the President's residence. An old video and image were falsely passed as scenes from the ongoing Bangladesh protests.

How did we find the truth?

We ran reverse image searches on the viral image and the keyframes from the video and found that they are not from Bangladesh, but from Sri Lanka. Here are the facts. 

The viral image

We found that the Indian news outlet Hindustan Times published the now-viral image on July 10, 2022, stating that it shows protesters sleeping on Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's bed at the President's house, a day after demonstrators entered the building in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The image is from protests in Sri Lanka in 2022 over the economic crisis, which led to Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation as the President on July 14, 2022. Protesters demanding the resignation of the President had entered his residence and torched his private mansion. He resigned after fleeing to the Maldives as protests escalated. 

Screenshot of the news report that shows the original image. (Source: Hindustan Times/Screenshot)

Reuters also published the image with the caption, "Demonstrators sleep on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's bed at the President's house, the day after demonstrators entered the building, after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka July 10, 2022."

The viral video

We found that the now-viral video has two clips joined together showing different angles of people swimming inside a pool, and found that this video is also from Sri Lanka and not Bangladesh. 

The first part of the video, up to the 0:08 second mark in the viral clip, was published by several media outlets, including BBC News and The Telegraph. The visuals at 0:02 in the viral video can be seen at 0.08 in the BBC video. According to the reports, dated July 9, 2022, the original video shows protesters swimming in the pool of the Sri Lankan President's residence after storming into his house during the same protests demanding his resignation. The BBC wrote in its report, "This footage shows demonstrators taking a swim in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's pool." 

Comparison between the viral video and the original video. (Source: X/YouTube/Modified by Logically Facts)

The second part of the video, seen from 0:11 seconds in the viral clip, can be seen in this video report published by News.Au on July 10, 2022 (archived here) with the caption: Sri Lankan protesters storm presidential palace, swim in pool." The Daily Mail also published this video with the caption: "Protesters swim in the pool at the residence of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 9. The protest comes as thousands have called for the president's resignation."

The above evidence shows that visuals from Sri Lanka have falsely been linked to protests in Bangladesh. 

The ongoing crisis in Bangladesh 

Students in Bangladesh have been protesting against the quota system in the country since June. At least 300 people, including students, have lost their lives, and several have suffered injuries. The protests turned violent as the demonstrators demanded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation. On August 5, Hasina resigned from her post and left the country. The Bangladeshi army will be forming an interim government.

The verdict

Old visuals from protests over the 2022 Sri Lankan economic crisis have been passed off as recent visuals of the ongoing Bangladesh crisis. The viral video and the image don't show protesters inside former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's residence.